


a different kind of love

by mannersminded



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Multi, Polyamory, awkward family dinner, awkward sex talks, derek is pack dad, generally ridiculous behaviour, packfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-21
Updated: 2012-07-21
Packaged: 2017-11-10 10:32:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mannersminded/pseuds/mannersminded
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's time for another Very Special Dinnertime at the Hale house. </p>
<p>(or, How Derek Gave Everyone the Sex Talk No One Wanted to Hear.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	a different kind of love

“Okay,” Derek growls from the end of the table. “Everyone, shut up.”

Everyone does. (Stiles shuts up so hard he nearly bites his tongue in half. Well, maybe not in half. But he came close!)

Derek does not look even slightly impressed. “You’re acting like a bunch of children.” His lip actually twitches. Stiles can’t tell if he’s struggling to contain laughter or murderous rage. “Yes, a pack is like a family. We all love each other, and that can bind us together as deeply as blood relations.”

Scott has the gall to huff a little bit, but Allison elbows him in the side before he can actually laugh and bring the fury of Hale down upon them.

“ _But_ ,” Derek continues, eyes flint-hard and gaze now fixed intently on the table, “you are young. And hormonal. And stupid.” He sighs, and steels himself. “I get that this is... a confusing time, what with the whole...” He coughs. “...bodies _changing_. And. Not just in a, a shapeshifter way.”

Stiles feels his stomach drop. Quickly, he glances around. Erica and Allison are wearing matching faces of absolute horror, and Lydia has her lips pursed so tightly that they’re almost invisible. Isaac’s whole face has gone red. Even Jackson looks slightly disturbed (then again, that’s kind of his default around anyone who isn’t Danny).

Scott, of course, doesn’t get it. “What do you mean, not like a shapeshifter? Is there something you aren’t telling us about the bite?”

Erica hides her face in her hands and whimpers. Stiles empathizes.

Derek grits his teeth. “I’m talking about puberty, you idiot.”

“Oh,” Scott says. Then the other shoe drops. “Oh! Oh, god!”

By this point, Derek’s whole face is contorted into a kind of twisty, furious grimace. “What I’m trying to say,” he hisses, “is that _pack love_ is different from any other kind of love, and sometimes things can get complicated, especially when people are as young as you. But they don’t have to be.”

The urge to sink down into his chair and hide under the table is strong, but Stiles resists valiantly. He can barely see Boyd’s eye twitching on the opposite side of the table, and if Boyd can hold it together, so can he.

“I’m not going to lecture you about abstinence or anything,” Derek mutters, like his own throat is desperately trying to retract the words before they can happen, “but I want you to understand that the rules are different in a pack.”

There is a terrible silence.  Stiles notices that Jackson’s face is alarmingly pale. Idly he wonders whether he should fetch a bucket.

“What do you mean?” Isaac ventures. He barely flinches when Erica kicks him under the table and hisses at him to shut up. There is a lot of female-on-male violence in the Hale house, Stiles notes. Maybe that’s what the next Very Special Dinnertime could focus on. (Considering the long talk they had last week about cigarettes and their effect on both the human and lupine body, and the one they had the week before regarding the performance-enhancing effects of wolf-ness, Very Special Dinnertimes were probably going to be a capital-T Thing from now on.)

Derek glares at Isaac, who miraculously does not catch on fire from sheer, concentrated rage. “Sex for humans is usually... monogamous.”

“This is not happening,” Lydia murmurs.

“In a pack, it’s different,” Derek continues. “Sex – ” He sort of chokes around the word. “ – is a tool. Yes, the whole baby thing, but it’s more than that.”

Jackson whimpers. “Oh, god, this is happening.”

Frustrated, Derek growls. “It strengthens the bond between pack members, and it brings a pack closer together.”

Scott apparently decides that this is a great time to butt in. “Are you saying that we should _all_...” His words die as his face kind of crumples up.

“I’m not saying you should, but I’m not saying it’s wrong, or that you shouldn’t,” Derek insists. “It’s a... normal part of being in a pack. A non-blood-related pack.”

“That’s it, I’m out,” Lydia states, and stands up to go.

“ _I’m not done_.” Derek’s teeth have gone all fangy.

Eyes wide, Lydia sits, and when Stiles opens his mouth to defend her maidenly honour, Derek looks at him like he’s an especially annoying hamburger. Stiles takes the high road and wisely says nothing.

“The point is that it’s not ‘cheating’ because _we’re all together_ , as a pack. What we have is just as deep as a two-person relationship. We trust each other. We love each other. Sometimes, things will happen. That’s just how it works.  Actually,” Derek amends, “they’re probably going to happen a lot, since you’re pumped full of hormones.”

“So you _are_ saying we should all – !” Scott yelps.

Allison muffles his mouth with her hand. “Scott, he’s saying that if we want to... _be with_ more than one person in the pack, it’s okay,” she explains quietly. “It’s normal.” She takes her hand off his mouth and kind of pets his face.

Scott looks deeply into her eyes, and his brow furrows. “I don’t want to be with anyone but you.”

A smile, slow and sweet, grows on her lips. (Somewhere in the background, Jackson gags.) “I don’t want to be with anyone else, either. And that’s okay, too.”

“When you’re in a pack like this, being exclusive is... rare,” Derek adds.

Boyd raises his hand, like a doofus. “Um, so, if, for example, Erica and Isaac get together and then Isaac sleeps with... I don’t know... Lydia or something – ”

Lydia definitely does not squawk.

“  – that’s not bad, or...?”

The startled huff that Derek lets loose is answer enough, but he elaborates. “I mean it wouldn’t be bad because we’re _all_ together. It’s not just a set of pairs. It’s all of us.”

Jackson sneers. “So we’re, like, Mormons now?”

Lydia rolls her eyes. “Polygamy is different from polyamory, Jackson.” When the room looks at her blankly, she frowns. “Come on, guys. Polygamy? One person married to a bunch of other people. Polyamory is when it’s a group relationship. Like a threesome, only more.” She looks at Derek for confirmation.

He nods. “That’s the gist of it.”

Lydia smirks.

Timidly, Erica says, “That sounds... that sounds really nice.”

The rest of the table stops moving. All eyes look to Erica, who is blushing pretty hard, all things considered.

“I’m just saying that it feels like it would be wrong to pick one person. That’s all. And I,” she mutters into her hands, “I love all of you so much – ”

Stiles glances around again. Derek’s whole face has gone kind of soft, like he’s staring at a sad baby puppy that he wants to adopt (which is remarkably close to the truth).

“Erica,” Isaac murmurs, “we love you too.” Carefully, he guides her face out of her hands and tilts it towards him. “So much.”

He kisses her. It’s a chaste thing, no more than a second, but it resonates through the whole room. When they pull back, both of their eyes have gone golden, and Erica looks so happy she might cry. There is a silence.

Boyd grins, and leans over to peck her on the cheek. “It’s true.” When she turns to look at him, he darts in and kisses her full on the mouth. It’s a little deeper than Isaac went. Okay, it’s a lot deeper. Wow.

“So do we all get to kiss Erica now, or what’s going on?” Stiles blurts before he can stop himself.

He’d been trying so, so hard not to say something stupid. So hard. From the looks pretty much everyone is giving him (well, not Erica, or Boyd – they seem to be a little distracted) he just failed pretty epically. Even Scott is looking at him funny. Damn.

“I’m just saying,” Stiles backpedals, “that if this is going to be that kind of dinner I want everyone to know that I have half a pack of Tic-Tacs in my backpack. Garlic breath is a problem that can be solved, people.”

Erica laughs into the kiss, and pulls away to look at Stiles. “If you want to, I really wouldn’t mind.”

“You – you wouldn’t?”

“Neither would I,” Boyd rumbles, and _wow_ his voice gets deep when he gets all wolfy. That is not something that should make Stiles feel all crumbly inside. Neither is the fact that Boyd’s eyes are glinting gold-ly at him.

“O...kay,” Stiles tries, but his voice cracks a bit on the last syllable.

He suddenly feels like an annoying hamburger again. Most of the other side of the table is looking at him like they can’t decide whether to eat him or have crazy kinky monkey sex with him. Quickly, he shoots a pleading glance at Scott, who seems to be trying to give him a sneaky thumbs-up. (It actually looks like he’s jerking off under the table, and that was _definitely not_ an image Stiles wanted in his head.)

Derek chuffs. It’s really, really weird when he does that. “So now that that’s over with, can someone please clear the table? Jackson, I believe it’s your turn to wash up.”

Jackson groans. “I can _buy_ us a dishwasher!”

“Then do it, but until then, we’re not living in a pigsty,” Derek snaps.

Allison kisses Scott’s hair, then stands. “I’ll get plates. Stiles, you want to grab the leftovers?”

“Boy howdy, would I,” Stiles yelps, and he fumbles his way into the kitchen.


End file.
